Executive Traveller Issue | Page 22

22 EXECUTIVE TRAVELLER BUSINESS AVIATION EXECUTIVE TRAVELLER BUSINESS AVIATION 23 Gulfstream’s G650 vs Dassault’s Falcon 5X The Gulfstream’s G650 The Gulfstream six is an ultra high speed and long range business jet, a flagship of the Gulfstream fleet which can fly faster, farther, and more comfortably than any other business aircraft in its class. For the past fice years since its introduction in the market, the G650 has be en regularly flying around the globe. With a TOB of eight and a crew composition of four on nonstop legs of 7,000 nautical miles this aircraft can link the UAE with the United States and the UK with the Americas. With high performance Rolls-Royce BR725 engines, the G650 will cover shorter distances at a speed of Mach 0.925 which is quite impressive for a business jet of its size and scale. The G650 is presently considered as the most technologically advanced business jet in the sky which can deliver excellent takeoff and landing performances. It comes standard with many advanced safety features with a fully equipped cockpit including Triplex Flight Management System, 3-D weather radar, Automatic Emergency Descent Mode, Advanced Flight Controls – a full array of sophisticated technology to improve pilot situational awareness and enhance safety. Longer, wider and taller than any other cabin in its class, the G650 living environment provides comfortable accommodations, for up to 18 people and a choice of 12 floor plans to configure the aircraft in order to meet your specific mission requirements. The cabin can be configured with a four-place conference table with two additional seats across the aisle for meals or meetings for up to 6 people. Enjoy wider seats, more aisle room and a large stateroom option for resting up between world capitals. © Dassault Aviation The G650, listed in the C-1.l class (takeoff weights of 77,162 to 99,208 pounds), offers the longest range, fastest speed, largest cabin and the most advanced cockpit in the Gulfstream fleet. For Gulfstream, the G650 represented not only a new airplane design but a new way of building airplanes. Besides building an impressive new plant at the Gulfstream campus in Savannah, Georgia, with the G650, Gulfstream created a new and more efficient way of building business jets. © Dassault Aviation Dassault’s Falcon 5X Recently, unveiled at the National Business Aviation Association’s annual convention in Las Vegas, the Falcon 5X is being hailed as the biggest innovation in business aircraft production. The aircraft offers the largest cabin cross section and fuel efficiency when compared to any competing aircraft of the same scale. © Dassault Aviation - Ph. Stroppa business jet has a cabin height of six feet, six inches (1.98 m), an important consideration for passenger comfort on long haul flights exceeding 10 hours. The Falcon 5X will cater for 16 passengers and has a range of 5,200 nautical miles (9,630 km), connecting all main USA airports to the United Kingdom, South Africa or China with any Central European country. Functionality and modern style blend in the cabin. The company conducted extensive research into new cabin technology and styling techniques that will greatly enhance passengers’ sense of spaciousness and comfort. © Gulfstrem.com The digital flight control system within its cockpit plays a major role in making this business aircraft an easier jet to fly accompanied by a better inflight control and improved safety features. It comes with an additional control surface called a ‘flaperon’, a feature which allows steep approaches at slow and safe speeds. It also integrates nose wheel steering for safer runway handling in strong crosswind conditions and on wet or slick runways. Having pioneered digital flight control technology on jet fighters four decades ago, Dassault Aviation is today, a leader in digital flight controls. The Falcon 7X was the first business aircraft released in 2007 featuring such hi tech. The Falcon 5X represents an important addition to the Falcon product line which is renowned for relatively smaller sized business jets, expanding its portfolio in the large-cabin segment. This new The Falcon 5X’s cockpit, Honeywell’s state of the art digital cockpit will include advanced radar capability, with the ability to detect turbulence at greater distances than its ancestor. The new HUD © Dassault Aviation - Ph. Stroppa will combine “enhanced vision” and “synthetic vision” for unrivalled situational awareness even in complete darkness or very low visibility. Infrared sensors enable an improved display of terrain at night time or during reduced visibility. Synthetic vision uses a global terrain database for the same purpose. In the 5X, both above mentioned new vision features will come together for the first time on the head-up display providing the cockpit crew with reliable visuals at practically zero visibility. The Falcon 5X will be powered by two Silvercrest engines from Safran Snecma. These new generation engines are engineered in a way to communicate in real time with the cockpit while in the air, and at the same time, with the maintenance team on the ground. This will provide a more efficient response time for the aircraft engineers should a fault crop up whilst in-flight. The Falcon 5X is expected to make its first flight in the first quarter of 2015 and be certified to be produced and sold before the end of 2016. It is to be priced in the region of $45 million dollars.